Singapore is a country that is located near many countries and resorts that are of interest to tourists. Vouchers to the most popular holiday destinations often require transfers at the international airports of this state. In connection with this circumstance, many Russians who travel extensively around the world have the following question: do I need a visa to Singapore? You can give a definite answer to it: yes, it is needed. Next, we consider some of the features of its design, as well as a list of documents necessary for this.
What is a visa?
A visa is a small permit type document that allows a particular citizen to cross the territorial, water or air borders of a particular state and stay within them for a certain time. It should be noted that each country sets its own visa option. Moreover, the document can be presented in different forms: paper, electronic, as well as in stamp format. If we consider the visa issued by Singapore, it is issued in electronic form, and the transit is presented in the form of a stamp affixed to the pages of the passport.
Trip to Singapore for a change
In order to transfer to another aircraft in a certain country, a short-term permit document is required. Many tourists from Russia who want to visit the best world resorts with a temporary drop-off in the country in question often have a question: do Russians need a transit visa to Singapore? Yes, I need it.
This permission can be presented in printed form - it is affixed to the tourist's passport upon arrival at the airport. The peculiarity of this document is that on its basis it is impossible to visit the state more than two times during the entire trip. When the tourist will depart from this country, another short-term stamp will be affixed.
We will consider in more detail below how to get a transit visa to Singapore and where to go for this.
In what cases a transit permit is issued
Is it necessary to apply for a transit visa (category A) to Singapore? This permit becomes necessary when the tourist plans to fly to a distant state, subject to a transfer at Singapore airport. However, it should be noted that for this the airline, the services of which the traveler uses, must be included in the register of services recognized by the country in question. Otherwise, a visa will not be issued upon arrival. In such a situation, the pre-registration of a standard permit (class C) for border crossing and stay in Singapore is required.
When a transit visa is not enough
There are certain situations when a tourist does not plan a long stay in Singapore, however, registration of a short-term permit in it is simply inappropriate.
Traveling through the country in question if only a transit visa is available will not take place if the tourist wants to leave the country not by air, but by car or, for example, a ferry. The thing is that in this situation, the traveler will not be able to properly confirm that he is in the country solely for the purpose of transit. Under these conditions, border guards are forced to refuse to grant anyone a short stay permit in Singapore.
If there is a time difference between connecting flights exceeding the permissible length of stay of guests on a transit visa to Singapore (96 hours), then in this situation it is also advisable to apply for a type C tourist permit. The positive thing about this is that for several days the country's guests have the opportunity to get acquainted with some attractions.
What is considered transit
Do you need a visa to Singapore if you plan a short time at the airport of the country and the subsequent flight by plane outside its borders to a third state? Yes, its design is necessary. However, if you want to receive the coveted stamp provided on your international passport free of charge, you should clearly determine what will be transit through Singapore.
In accordance with the established rules, transit is a temporary stay in the state for a short time, during which a transfer is made from one flight of the aircraft to another, following in the right direction. So, in accordance with this statement, a flight from Moscow to Singapore and a further flight, for example, to Bangkok will be an example of transit. If we consider the Moscow-Singapore-Moscow route, then this direction cannot be called such a concept, as a result of which a tourist may be decided not to provide a stamp. In this situation, there is an urgent need to obtain an electronic tourist visa to the country. It is issued through the official website of the representative office of the diplomatic mission in Russia, on a paid basis and subject to the provision of a certain number of documents. Moreover, it usually takes some time to review a filed application - approximately three days.
Where to apply for clearance
Where and how is a transit visa to Singapore issued? It should be noted that the procedure for obtaining the permission in question is quite simple, it does not require any large financial and time costs.
A transit visa to Singapore can be issued upon arrival at the state airport. Practice shows that this method of obtaining a permit is very convenient and hassle-free.
After the tourist has provided all the necessary papers to the border guard officer, a stamp will be put in his passport indicating the date and time of arrival. From this moment, 96 hours will be counted down, during which the tourist has the right to freely be in the territory of the state in question.
Documents
Let us consider in more detail the list of those documents that will be required to obtain a stamp representing a transit visa through Singapore. It should be noted that on an official basis, border guards have the right to request:
- only valid passport;
- visa required to cross the border of the country to which the flight is made;
- confirmation that the tourist intends to leave the territory of Singapore in a timely manner (a ticket to a third country, the departure date for which enter the permissible time frame).
Practice shows that in addition to all these documents, border guards of Singapore can request some other important papers. In particular, they may include:
- confirmation of the availability of accommodation for a short period of stay of a tourist in Singapore;
- documents proving the availability of financial resources.
As a rule, such papers may be requested if the traveler plans to stay in Singapore for more than a day.
Migration card
When collecting the documents necessary for obtaining a transit visa to Singapore, you should pay attention to the presence of a migration card. As a rule, its form is issued to tourists on board the plane and is filled there. As for the data entry process itself, all crew questions that may arise during its implementation can be answered by the crew.
As for the basic rules for entering data, all information must fully comply with those presented on the pages of the passport. All of them must be entered using a ballpoint pen in black or blue, in Latin letters. Moreover, corrections are not allowed in the migration card. In the event that such are observed, border guards have every right to refuse to provide a permit stamp.
Passport Requirements
Border guards working at the registration desk pay special attention to the passport during the verification of documents. In accordance with the rules established by Singapore law, the travelerβs passport must be valid for at least 6 months from the moment the border is crossed. Moreover, it is mandatory that it contains at least one blank page, which will subsequently be required for affixing a print.
Transit visa time and cost
How long does the short-stay visa process for Singapore take? Practice shows that in the presence of all the necessary documents and in the absence of additional questions to the traveler from the border guard, the procedure for obtaining the coveted stamp takes literally 5-7 minutes.
As for the cost of stamping services, it is provided absolutely free of charge.
Getting a transit stamp on the land border
Is it possible to obtain the permission in question by crossing the land border of the city-state of Singapore? It is theoretically possible. Moreover, in practice there are a small number of cases where tourists from Russia managed to get the coveted stamp in their passport.
The practice of tourists from different regions of Russia shows that this procedure is complicated by the fact that state border guards are especially picky about those people who want to enter the country in transit through the land border. Border guards can ask a lot of different questions related to the direction of the trip, its purpose, availability of a booked hotel room, etc. Moreover, in some cases, travelers are asked to provide a travel plan and their actions for the period of stay in the country, as well as are forced to withdraw fingerprint. In fact, this procedure is delayed for a long time, and the vehicle booked by the tour operator to transfer the traveler from the border of the country to the destination will not wait long.
When obtaining a transit visa in this way, border guards request the same standard package of documents as at the airport (a valid passport, as well as a confirmed ticket for a plane that will take place no less than 96 hours after the tourists cross the Singapore border).